The Pensacola Downtown Improvement Board wants to eliminate term limits for electing its officers on the board, but the City Council must first approve the change.

Currently, board members, who are appointed to three-year terms by the mayor, can only be elected by their fellow board members as officers, like chairman of the board or treasurer, for four consecutive one-year terms.

The DIB voted to change their officer term limits at its meeting in February, and the City Council will approve or deny the change at its meeting Thursday.

Current DIB Chairman John Peacock is in his fourth year and facing the term limit imposed by the board's bylaws.

Peacock told the News Journal on Monday that the board voted to end the term limits because the members thought the provision was redundant.

"If someone is willing to put in the time and effort to do those various functions — and not just chairman, it's vice chairman and treasurer, and all of those kinds of jobs — it's up to the board, the council and mayor to determine whether or not those people are fulfilling those duties, and a document that just kind of arbitrarily makes that change (by limiting the term) doesn't make sense," he said.

The term limits were added by the DIB sometime after 1991 and before 2009, although it's not clear from the DIB's bylaws exactly when the change was made.

Councilman Brian Spencer, who serves as an non-voting member of the DIB, is sponsoring the change before the City Council. He said the DIB is the only city board that has imposed term limits on its officers.

The Florida Legislature created the DIB in 1972 to improve the downtown area by managing a portion of the property tax collected by the area. Although technically a state agency, the mayor of Pensacola makes appointments to the DIB that must be approved by the City Council, and any change made to the board's bylaws must be approved by City Council.

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Mark Horn, a parking enforcement officer for the Downtown Improvement Board, tickets a car for parking in the wrong direction on Palafox Street.(Photo: Brandon Girod/cgirod@pnj.com)

Peacock said it's important for the DIB to have a consistency in its operations as downtown Pensacola is growing and changing.

"There's a lot of moving parts for the DIB, especially now as our city continues to grow," Peacock said. "I think the board wanted to make sure that there was consistency there, and the programs that we put in place continue to be fulfilled. We've changed the mission of the DIB significantly over the years, and the goal is to continue on that path until a mayor, whoever that might be, or City Council decides that's no longer appropriate or the board decides to change direction.”

Peacock is in his second three-year term on the board and said during his time on the board the DIB has focused more on its original mission.

"Before we (were) more of a Pensacola entertainment board, doing Gallery Nights and Pelican Drop and those kind of things," Peacock said. "Now we're back to the original mission statement of trying to aesthetically improve, make safe and clean the 44-block area known as the Downtown Improvement District."

The DIB hired a new parking manager, Premium Parking out of New Orleans, that began managing DIB's parking spaces on March 1.

Peacock said he hopes the DIB can expand parking downtown, but no decisions have been made on how that will be done. He added any decision will be made as part of DIB's public meetings.

"Everything is on the table," Peacock said. "As the city continues to grow and infrastructure needs continue to increase, then we certainly can't have free parking. We have to have turnover for various retailers, and that doesn't mean there will never be free parking anywhere. We just have to be smarter about how we do it."